Romola Sadie Garai (pronounced /ˈrɒmələ ˈseɪdi ˈɡæri/;1 born 6 August 1982) is an award-winning English actress.
Biography
Early life
Garai was born in Hong Kong,23 the daughter of Janet, a journalist, and Hungarian Adrian Garai, a high-ranked bank manager. She relocated to Singapore at five before her family returned to Wiltshire in the United Kingdom when she was eight. Garai's father is of Jewish Hungarian descent;4 her great-grandfather was Bert Garai, the founder of the Keystone Press.5
She attended an independent boarding school, at Stonar and later moved at sixteen to London to attend the City of London School for Girls where she ended up finishing off her A-levels. She was fond of drama and appeared in school plays, and also with the National Youth Theatre up until the age of 18, where she was spotted by an agent who whisked her away to play the younger version of Judi Dench's character in a television production called The Last of the Blonde Bombshells.3
After A-levels, she studied English Literature at Queen Mary, University of London; she originally intended to only study but decided to do acting on the side during the summer holidays.3 She is a former model6.
Acting career
It was during her first break from University that Garai landed a part in a BBC-produced television series called Attachments. It was this production that prompted her to make the decision to stop her education and concentrate solely on her acting career.3
Garai's first major film role was in 2002's Nicholas Nickleby. She played Kate Nickleby, a supporting role, in the well-reviewed film. The entire cast was widely recognized for their work and were awarded Best Ensemble by the National Board of Review. In 2003's I Capture the Castle, she played 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain. She received glowing praise for her work and the film scored 80% at Rotten Tomatoes. Her performance earned her a nomination for a Most Promising Newcomer award from the British Independent Film Awards.7 Many critics hailed her as the next Julie Christie taking into account not only Romola's acting talent but also her uncanny resemblance to the screen legend.Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004) was Garai's biggest critical flop to date, scoring only 23% at Rotten Tomatoes (though it went on to make $27 million worldwide). Her performance received mixed reviews – many critics felt let down after her previous impressive turns. Later that same year Vanity Fair was released.
In 2005, Garai received another BIFA nomination, this time for their Best Supporting Actress award, for her performance as Siobhan in the independent film Inside I'm Dancing. Her portrayal earned her the British Supporting Actress of the Year award from the London Film Critics Circle.
Also in 2005 she starred in a lavish Australian miniseries called The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant. At $15 million it was the most expensive miniseries ever shot in Australia. While critics hailed it as "pleasingly old-fashioned adventure", it was her performance that won the most admiration and earn her two nominations: Best Lead Actress in Television from the Australian Film Institute and Most Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series from the Logie Awards. As The Observer noted: "As for the tireless Garai, she once again demonstrated an instinctive understanding of the vital difference between overperforming and overacting".
She can be seen in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of Shakespeare's As You Like It (2006), as Celia. The film was released in some European cinemas before being broadcast in 2007 on HBO cable television in the U.S. In 2009, it opened in theatres in Mexico.8
In 2007, Garai starred in her biggest role yet, as Angel Deverell in Francois Ozon's Angel. The Independent named her one of the Actresses of the year for her performance in Angel.9. Romola was also nominated for the Prix Lumiere award 10 (French equivalent of the Golden Globes) as Best Female Newcomer for Angel, making her the first British actress to be nominated for a Prix Lumiere
The same year she also starred in the Oscar-nominated movie Atonement as the teenaged Briony Tallis alongside James McAvoy and Keira Knightley. The movie went on to receive seven Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Garai earned a Best Actress nomination from the Evening Standard British Film Awards for her performance.11 She also appeared in two Royal Shakespeare Company productions: as Cordelia in King Lear and as Nina in The Seagull, starring alongside Ian McKellen, Frances Barber, Sylvester McCoy, Jonathan Hyde and William Gaunt. The run, which toured the world, went into residence in the New London Theatre where it ended mid-January 2008. She received rave reviews, especially as Nina in The Seagull, The Independent calling her a "woman on the edge of stardom"12, and This Is London calling her "superlative", and stating that the play was "distinguished by the illuminating, psychological insights of Miss Garai's performance."13 She reprised her role as Cordelia in a televised version of King Lear.
In 2008 she appeared in the feature film The Other Man alongside Liam Neeson, Laura Linney and Antonio Banderas.
Garai will next star in Stephen Poliakoff's World War II thriller "1939" along side Julie Christie, Jenny Agutter, Bill Nighy, Christopher Plummer and Eddie Redmayne. In 2009 she will work on a television adaptation of Jane Austen's 'Emma - the 4 hour long mini series will premiere on BBC One in the autumn of 2009, and costars Michael Gambon and Johnny Lee Miller.14.
She is attached to play iconic American First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in Flying Into Love15; she will also appear in Hettie Macdonald's feature Nova Scotia, in which she plays a character called Lucy Hay16, and in director Gareth Bryn's Driven, which is written by Catrin Clarke.17
In 2009 The Sunday Times Magazine named her as one of Britain's Rising Stars 18 alongside Matthew Goode, Andrea Riseborough, Hugh Dancy, Eddie Redmayne and many others. Past recepients of this honor include Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Michael Sheen. In January of that year she travelled to the Syrian-Iraqi border to make a short film titled No Man's Land for the UNHCR highlighting the plight of 800 Palestinian refugees living in Al- Tanaf refugee camp. Of her visit to the refugee camps Garai states, My trip to a refugee camp in Syria destroyed any hope that the horrors of Iraq might end, or that we are doing enough to help its victims.19
She would like to diversify into writing20, especially for the theatre, which remains her first love.
Personal life
Garai lives in London and is currently finishing her degree in English Literature with the Open University21.
Garai guards her private life; "It's too simplistic to say that people start to believe what's written about them. But what happens is that you become a certain way to please people, to be liked, to be what's expected of you, to change yourself so that you become the best possible version of yourself for people who don't know you. And I think that's a terrible, pernicious thing." 22 She states ,"In a way, I'd rather go into an interview and be disliked, and have unpleasant things written about me, than to have a wonderful, glowing article written that is in no way a reflection of who I am." 23
Garai enjoys traveling and cooking in her spare time calling it 'therapeutic' 24 in many ways. She has visited Hong Kong, Malaysia, Italy, Austria, Morocco and Switzerland, and states, To be the outsider for a period of time changes you for the better. It shakes up your comfort level. You have to really make an effort to enter into other people's culture and psychology and language, which the British are very bad at doing.25
Selected credits
References
External links
![The Real Life of Angel Deverell ( Angel ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Netherlands ]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4151V9IPkIL._SL160_.jpg)
![Nicholas Nickleby (2002) (Dol) [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51C160YCAXL._SL160_.jpg)
&link=http://www.youtube.com/v/EvlALUrE9iA&fs=1&hl=en&source=uds&autoplay=1&thumb=http://0.gvt0.com/vi/EvlALUrE9iA/default.jpg&celebrity=Romola Garai)
 Romola Garai as Gwendolen Harleth, singing in the BBC miniseries "Daniel Deronda."&link=http://www.youtube.com/v/ujOdEBgOPvw&fs=1&hl=en&source=uds&autoplay=1&thumb=http://0.gvt0.com/vi/ujOdEBgOPvw/default.jpg&celebrity=Romola Garai)
